Here be Dragons…

Photo 106371248, (c) wild_wind, licensed under CC-BY 4.0 DEED

Everybody loves dragons.

All around the world there are countless iterations on the idea of the dragon, oftentimes created independently of each other. Almost every culture has a dragon. That or translators and folklorists are a bit over eager to stamp the title of dragon on anything vaguely scaley. Regardless, you have to admit they are cool.

Besides the part where they don’t exist, that bit kinda sucks. It’d also be super dangerous if they did. But let’s be honest, if dragons did exist, knowing humans and our treatment of large fauna *cough*moa/mammoths/haast-eagle*cough*, we’d probably have killed them off already. Either way, probably for the best.

It is true that we have some “dragons” which are mostly glorified lizards (still adorable though) and other miscellanea.

Today is Appreciate a Dragon Day. I have thoughtfully provided a list of dragons for you to pick from all au naturale. And because you lot have been such well-behaved little gremlins, I’ll even share some fun facts on each of these fierce beasties.

A Flying Dragon – Genus Draco

Because reality is often disappointing, flying dragons, on top of not being dragons, don’t actually fly. What they do is they glide. That said, those wings of theirs are pretty neat expansions of their ribs and can at least pretend to fly. Do your ribs allow you to pretend to fly? Didn’t think so.

Central Bearded Dragon

The only dragon commonly kept as a pet! Even in New Zealand, the buzzkill that won’t let me have a precious snake as a pet. Some cute behaviour they have is waving their hand to show submission, mostly to show other bearded dragons that they’re chill and not gonna mess with their turf.

via GIPHY

Due to them being pets, you can find plentiful adorable images and videos on the internet, so that’s something you can do to fill an afternoon!

Komodo Dragon

So there’s something weird with the Komodo’s bite. When komodos attack big prey, like say a buffalo, if they don’t manage to kill the prey the first time, it’ll stalk the prey which eventually dies of infection. The thing is it’s not clear whether this is a purposeful evolutionary thing, because komodo dragons do have venom, or at least something like venom, but scientists don’t know what it really does. Give the topic some research if you want, it’s super interesting.

Boyd’s Forest Dragon

Boyd’s Forest Dragons are great, they spend the majority of their lives just hanging out on tree trunks. Unlike most lizards, they don’t sunbathe, instead letting the air heat them, so they can just stay on their tree trunks. If you bug them by coming close, they will just move to the opposite side of the tree and return to their vibing.

What a mood.

Eastern Water Dragon

Water Dragons, as the name suggests, are pretty good in water. They can stay underwater for 90 minutes, during that time they can eat, slow their heart rate, and perform gas exchange. They have strong tails designed to help swimming, but if they want to, and they often do, they just vibe on the bottom of shallow creeks and lakes.

Blue Nawab Dragon-Headed Caterpillar

These cuties have a fierce visage that it used to scare off predators, but some have more protection than that. Some dragon headed caterpillars are venomous (not the blue nawab though, it only has those horns.) Unfortunately for us dragon lovers, being caterpillars, these beasties don’t stay dragons forever, eventually they’ll shed their draconic essence and become butterflies. Also, butterflies literally melt in those chrysalis, which is metal as.

Amazon Sapphirewing Dragonfly

Dragonflies don’t actually live very long as dragonflies, spending most of their life as aquatic nymphs. Once becoming full dragonflies they die quickly as well, living from 1 week to about 8 weeks. This is compared to being nymphs for up to 5 years! Also, since the nymphs are clearly the important bit, nymphs breath through their rectum. Imagine that.

Shocking Pink Dragon Millipede

Whoever named this creepy crawly was being super duper extra about it, but to be fair, “Shocking Pink” is a fitting descriptor. It’s this colour because it is very poisonous, and wants predators to know and not nom it, in what’s called aposematism. Because of its picked poison hydrogen cyanide, it smells like almonds.

Leafy Seadragon

Despite not being used for propulsion, this dragon’s fancy frills are not just there to look pretty. As the name implies, leafy seadragons appearance is made to camouflage into seaweed. They can even camouflage while moving, pretending to be a piece of floating seaweed!
Side note: a lot of these dragons, including this one, are from Australia, like a remarkable amount. I suppose it makes sense, considering Aussie is the land of all things deadly.

Blue Dragon Sea Slug

These adorable little creatures are actually upside down! It floats because of the position of its gas sac. The blue bit, pictured above, is actually the foot of the blue dragon, with its upper side being more of a silvery colour. These colours are important because it camouflages the dragon slug from above and below, in a phenomena called countershading, also seen in sharks!

Dragon Blood Tree

You may ask, where is the dragon blood in this tree? The answer is in its sap, which is blood red. Imagine the shock of the poor fool who was the first to cut down one of these trees. Trees bleeding blood, sounds like a horror movie. This “dragon blood” has been long used as a dye and for medicine, as well as for occult purposes. Apparently it wasn’t all quack science too, as it still has some use in medicine today.

Snapdragon

People can’t decide what animal Snapdragons look like, though people do think they look like animals. Obviously people think they look like dragons, hence the name snapdragon, but people also think they look like dogs (dog flowers), toads (toadflax) and cows (the scientific name Antirrhinum comes from the Greek “calf snout”). Personally my vote is for dragons, though I may have biases.

Red-Fleshed Dragonfruit

Dragonfruit are grown off cacti, rather than the usual trees, vines, and bushes. In some places in the world they have escaped confinement and become an invasive weed, showing the world the might of the dragon!

Photo 220126557, (c) Joe Dillon, some rights reserved (CC BY)

For my pick of dragon to appreciate, I’m going to fudge the rules a bit and appreciate the Tuatara, national pride, y’know.

“But tuatara aren’t dragons!” They cry, straw-like but this time not specifically gendered. “They’re just lizards. It’s not even in their name!”

Firstly, they’re close enough, they’re old and scaley creatures that hide in lairs, basically a dragon. Also tuatara have three eyes, so obviously they have mad psychic/magic abilities.

Secondly…

*Fun Fact Alert*
Tuatara aren't lizards. They're part of the order rhynchocephalians, whereas lizards (plus snakes) are squamates. (Sidenote, isn't the term "squamates" so adorable? Snakes and lizards are squamates, best of friends).

But if you are unimpressed with what nature has created, with those weak “dragons”, perhaps you’ll prefer what the human brain has conjured. Before ye is my own dragon’s hoard of dragon media. So step light, lest the dragon catches you, and enjoy your plunder.

via GIPHY

The last dragon / Yolen, Jane
“Two hundred years after humans drove the dragons from the islands of May, the last wyrm rises anew to wreak havoc, with only a healer’s daughter and a kite-flying, reluctant hero standing in its way.” (Catalogue)

Seraphina / Hartman, Rachel
The kingdom of Goredd is populated by humans and by dragons who fold themselves into a human form. Though they live alongside each other, the peace between them is uneasy. But when a member of the royal family is murdered, and the crime appears to have been committed by a dragon, the peace and treaty between both worlds is seriously threatened.” (Catalogue)

Burn / Ness, Patrick
“On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957, Sarah Dewhurst waited with her father in the parking lot of the Chevron Gas Station for the dragon he’d hired to help on the farm.” This dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul but is seemingly intent on keeping her safe from the brutal attentions of Deputy Sheriff Emmett Kelby. Kazimir knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm because of a prophecy. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself.” (Catalogue)

Dragon shield / Fletcher, Charlie
“Something dark is stirring in the British Museum and has stopped time, freezing the city in its tracks. Will and Jo are plunged into this eerie world and find themselves pursued by murderous dragons. Racing for survival with help from a couple of friendly statues, they must escape the evil that stalks them through the streets of London.” (Catalogue)

Returner’s wealth / Stewart, Paul
“Seventeen-year-old Micah, enters the wyrmeweald full of hope to return home having made his fortune. But this is a land where wyrmes, fabulous dragon-like beasts, roam wild and reign supreme. In Wyrmeweald man is both hunter and hunted – and Micah may never return alive, let alone a hero… He soon finds a chance to prove his worth when he meets with Eli, a veteran tracker, and together they defend a rare whitewyrme egg and its precious hatchling. But the fledgling wyrme has its own guardian in the shape of the beautiful, brave and dangerous Thrace. Together they join forces on a mission to rescue the hatchling – and seek vengeance for lost loved-ones. ” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Guards! Guards / Pratchett, Terry
“A night-time prowler is turning the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork, the greatest city in Discworld, into something resembling charcoal biscuits. Captain Vimes of the City Watch is given the task of tracking down the culprit, a seventy-foot dragon.” (Catalogue)

The hunting of the last dragon / Jordan, Sherryl
“High overhead, a dragon flies on coppery wings and rains down fire and destruction. It is the last of the great beasts, bent on wreaking havoc. Everywhere it flies, it chars the medieval English countryside, turning it and its people to gray ash with its fiery breath. Despairing and terrified, the people pray for a hero to save them. Jude is no hero. But when his family falls victim to the terrifying menace, he sets out to destroy the beast, even though he knows he has no hope of succeeding. Joined by a strange, beautiful young woman from a country far beyond the sea, Jude tells his tale of the hunting of the last dragon.” (Catalogue)

Tess of the road / Hartman, Rachel
“In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy. Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it’s a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl—a subspecies of dragon—who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she’s tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The books of Earthsea / Le Guin, Ursula K.
Book One: A wizard of Earthsea
“Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance.” (Catalogue)

Stormrise / Boehme, Jillian
“If Rain weren’t a girl, she would be respected as a Neshu combat master. Instead, her gender dooms her to a colorless future. When an army of nomads invades her kingdom, and a draft forces every household to send one man to fight, Rain takes her chance to seize the life she wants. Knowing she’ll be killed if she’s discovered, Rain purchases powder made from dragon magic that enables her to disguise herself as a boy. Then she hurries to the war camps, where she excels in her training–and wrestles with the voice that has taken shape inside her head. The voice of a dragon she never truly believed existed…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Rise of the dragons / Rice, Morgan
“Kyra, 15, dreams of becoming a famed warrior, like her father, even though she is the only girl in a fort of boys. As she struggles to understand her special skills, her mysterious inner power, she realizes she is different than the others. But a secret is being kept from her about her birth and the prophecy surrounding her, leaving her to wonder who she really is. When Kyra comes of age and the local lord comes to take her away, her father wants to wed her off to save her. Kyra, though, refuses, and she journeys out on her own, into a dangerous wood, where she encounters a wounded dragon-and ignites a series of events that will change the kingdom forever…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Dragonkeeper / Wilkinson, Carole
“Ping is struggling to protect the young dragon Kai from the ruthless enemies that stalk him.Then an old friend sends her a secret map that shows the way to Dragon Haven – and the Dragonkeeper sets out on the most important journey of her life. But when Ping and Kai arrive they are shocked to find that Dragon Haven has been abandoned and only a pile of dragon bones remains. What has happened to the wild creatures that roamed there? The answer comes in the form of a mysterious dragon who holds the key to Kai’s future…” (Catalogue)